Barth on The Church’s Solidarity With the World

Here’s another quote from Barth. Here he talks about the Church’s solidarity with the world  as an implication of her existence for God (which necessarily follows from God’s being for the world):

Solidarity with the world means that those who are genuinely pious approach the children of the world as such, that those who are genuinely righteous are not ashamed to sit down with the unrighteous as friends, that those who are genuinely wise do not hesitate to seem to be fools among fools, and that those who are genuinely holy are not too good or irreproachable to go down “into hell” in a very secular fashion. (CD, IV.3.2, 774.)

Barth on Scholasticism

. . . Nothing that can claim to be truly of the Church need shrink from the sober light of “scholasticism.” No matter how free and individual it may be in its first expression, if it seeks universal acceptance, it will be under constraint to set up a school and therefore to become the teaching of a school. Fear of Scholasticism is the mark of a false prophet. The true prophet will be ready to submit his message to this test too. (CD, I.1 p 274)

God’s Grandchildren: The Biblical Basis for Infant-Baptism

An excellent article by Mike Horton on infant baptism here.

His eight compelling arguments are also helpful.

Examining Ourselves Before the Supper

Some have difficulty with the words of the Form: “Let every one examine his heart whether he also believes this sure promise of God that all his sins are forgiven him only for the sake of the passion and death of Jesus Christ.” The question is then whether someone who is not sure of this may celebrate the Lord’s Supper. We must pay close attention to how the word “sure” is used in this context. It is not asked whether we believe with certainty or whether we have a sure faith. The key is that we truly believe God’s promise to be sure and definite. The crux is not what we believe with respect to ourselves but what we believe with respect to God’s promise. The liturgical form itself points out that we must see it this way and not otherwise. After all, it is said further along “that we do not have a perfect faith and that we must daily strive with the weakness of our faith.” Nevertheless, “desirous to fight against our unbelief and to live according to all the commandments of God we rest assured that no sin or infirmity which still remains in us against our will can hinder us from being received of God in grace.”
This is completely in line with Calvin’s pastoral guidance. When we sense an imperfect faith within us and our conscience accuses us of many shortcomings, this should not hinder us from approaching the Lord’s Table. The sacrament is precisely intended for such people! “If to stay away from the Lord’s Supper we maintain that our faith is still weak and our life imperfect, we would resemble someone who excuses himself from taking medication because he is sick.”
- J. van Genderen, W. H. Velema, Concise Reformed Dogmatics trans. Gerrits Bilkes and Ed M. van der Maas (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2008), 812-13.   

D. G. Hart on Paleo- and Neo-Reformed

@ Old Life.

The Church and the Old Testament

God’s promises are not predictions or prognostications that cease to have relevance once they have come true. In that case part of the Old Testament would only be of historical significance to us! The church of Christ sees the coming of God to his people described in all of the Old Testament, and hears in it the announcement of salvation. Therefore the church still loves the Old Testament as the Word of God, just as it was the book of life and the book of prayer to the Son of Man. Passages from the Psalms became words from the cross. Jesus said of the Scriptures of the Old Testament: “They are they which testify of me” (John 5:39). “To him give all the prophets witness” (Acts 10:43). It says in the gospel “that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning [him]” (Luke 24:44). We must keep in mind that when God’s promises become true, this does not necessarily mean that they have been completely fulfilled. The Old Testament promises of salvation open mighty perspectives pertaining to consummation and God’s eternal kingdom. It says that “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9). This is not yet the case. We can indeed see more of it that could those who first heard the words of this prophecy. At one time the knowledge of the God of the covenant remained practically limited to a single nation, while today the Word of God reaches around the globe. But the full realization of these promises remains outstanding. Their realization in the new dispensation will be superseded by their ultimate fulfillment in the coming kingdom of God.
- J. van Genderen, W. H. Velema, Concise Reformed Dogmatics trans. Gerrits Bilkes and Ed M. van der Maas (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2008), 67. 

What Hath Constantinople to do With Belgium?

In a chapter dedicated to the various tranlsations of the Belgic Confession, Gootjes provides an interesting account of a Greek translation (intended to help students study the Greek language) somehow ending up in the hands of the Greek Orthodox patriarch, Cyril Lucaris:

Remarkably, this version found its way to Constantinople, where the reformation-minded Cyril Lucaris (1572-1638) was patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church. From a letter written in September 1627 by Cornelis Haga, the Dutch consul in Constantinople, it can be derived that Cyril had stated he fully agreed with it as conforming to the pure Word of God. As only the confession and the catechism are mentioned, this letter must refer to the first Greek edition of the confession. This edition was reprinted in 1635.
The same version of the confession was published in 1627 as part of a more comprehensive publication. Not only were Greek and Latin translations of the Belgic Confession and Heidelberg Catechism included, but also translations of liturgical forms and the church order. In fact, this was a bilingual version of Thysius’ book on the doctrine and order of the Dutch churches, which had been published in 1615. This edition was also sent to Constantinople. Revius himself reported to the Dutch ambassador that he had sent several copies, one with a personal message for Cyril. At his request, the States General decided to send 200 unbound copies to Constantinople at their own expense.
Two years later, in 1629, Cyril published his own confession of faith. This was a Reformed confession, made with the intention of furthering the reformation of the Greek church in a Calvinistic direction. In a letter to Leger, Cyril stated that his own confession is in agreement with the confessions of the evangelical churches, but the only confession he mentions by name is the Belgic Confession. 
- Nicolaas H. Gootjes, The Belgic Confession: Its History and Sources (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 178-79. 

Of course, Cyril Lucaris doesn’t necessarily represent the rest of the Eastern tradition. Regardless, the account is still interesting.

To the Governess of the Netherlands, Margaretha of Parma

Here’s a letter that the local government of Doornik sent to the governess to inform her of an “act of rebellion” by some citizens.

November 2, 1561:

Madame, today at the opening gate of this castle, a closed and sealed package has been found, thrown within the first enclosure. This contained a lengthy writing addressed to us or, in our absence, to the [authorities] of this city, in the name of the resident and inhabitant burghers, containing their protests against the persecutions . . .
And in order to make you aware of the purity of their doctrine, we present the booklet here enclosed, containing their confession, which they say more than half of this town present to us with common accord, to which more than one hundred thousand people of these lands agree together. And [they say] that they will not change it even at the risk of losing their goods, tortures, misfortunes, death or the fire, in order not to let themselves deviate from the purity of the doctrine of God. Finally, [they] quote several sentences in Latin, Greek and Hebrew taken from the Scripture. 
- taken from Nicolaas H. Gootjes, The Belgic Confession: Its History and Sources (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 15. 

Of course, the supposed rebellion was no rebellion at all, but an effort on the part of Reformed believers to set themselves apart from the anabaptists before the civil magistrate. And the confession referred to above is what we know today as the Belgic Confession.

Gootjes comments:

The explanation the Reformed presented to the government in this unusual way was obviously intended to prevent the impression that throwing the confession inside the outside walls of the castle was not meant as an act of defiance. Rather, it was an unusual way to present the Reformed doctrine to the authorities. Since the Reformed were prevented from promoting their doctrine in person, they presented it in writing. They publicly wanted to make known to the authorities what they believed on the basis of God’s Word. And they confirmed in the handwritten letter added to the booklet that they were willing to give up their possessions and even their lives for the sake of their faith.

Ursinus on the Ministry of the Church

Questions 264-273 from Ursinus’ Larger Catechism:

264 Q. What is the ministry of the church?

 A. It is the public preaching of God’s Word, the administration of the sacraments and church discipline–instituted by Christ for bringing to completion the salvation of the elect.

265 Q. Why did God institute the ministry of the church?

A. So that through it he might receive us into his covenant, keep us in it, and really convince us that we are and forever will remain in it.

266 Q. Why do you say that we are received and kept in God’s covenant through the ministry?

A. Because it is the instrument of the Holy Spirit by which he works and confirms in the hearts of the elect the faith and conversion that God requires of us in his covenant.

267 Q. Isn’t the Holy Spirit’s own honor taken away when sanctification is attributed to the ministry? 

A. No, for the strength and power by which we are sanctified are all from the divine Spirit; the ministry is merely his instrument by which he moves the souls and hearts of the elect whenever and however it seems right to him–not because he could not do otherwise but because it pleased the divine wisdom, through the foolish preaching of the cross, to save those who believe.

268 Q. What should ministers preach?

A. Nothing but the Word of God contained in the law and the gospel.

269 Q. But how can we be certain that the Word of God is being proclaimed by ministers?

A. If they proclaim the teaching recorded in the books of the Old and New Testaments, and if what they say conforms to the Articles of the Faith and the commandments of God; in short, if they teach us to seek our entire salvation in Christ alone.

270 Q. Isn’t it enough to learn God’s Word privately?

A. It is indeed necessary for our salvation to meditate on it day and night, but if we want to be Christians, we must also make use of the public ministry when we are not prevented by circumstance.

271 Q. Why is this necessary?

A. First, because of God’s command. Second, so that God may be publicly glorified by the whole church in the sight of all people and creatures. Third, so that the unity of the church might be preserved and displayed.

272 Q. What does the Holy Spirit bring about through the preaching of God’s Word?

A. First, he teaches us what God promises us in his covenant and what he in turn requires from us. Next, he persuades us to believe and obey him more and more each day.

273 Q. But how does the Holy Spirit work in us through hearing and meditating on God’s Word?

A. When we learn it for the purpose of believing and obeying him in all things.

- Zacharius Ursinus, The Larger Catechism, trans. Lyle D. Bierma, from Lyle D. Bierma, An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism  (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005), 211-13.

Reformed-Baptist: An Oxymoron?

. . . they [Reformed Christians] cannot remain faithful to their theology while ceasing to regard infant baptism as legitimate and scriptural. When we are desired to believe the contrary, and when it is asserted that “some thousands of the Baptist Churches lay claim to Calvinist doctrine, like the Reformed Churches in the United States,” we at once demand that they should read the texts and study closely the confessions of faith, and they will then see whether these churches have remained “Calvinist” and whether their doctrine differs from “Calvinist doctrine” only on the question of baptism. Such assertions are not confirmed by facts. We are sufficiently well placed to know the gulf which separates the doctrines of those who “lay claim to Calvinist doctrine” and this “Calvinist doctrine” taken in its real and precise scientific sense. It is one thing to lay claim to a doctrine, and quite another to profess it!
- Pierre-Charles Marcel, The Biblical Doctrine of Infant Baptism: Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace, trans. Philip Edgcumbe Hughes (Cambridge, England: James Clarke Co., Ltd, 2002), 250-51.